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Two seventh graders at Mount Vernon School in Sandy Springs just watched an idea they pitched as fifth graders come fully to life. Ocean Durden and David Song ceremonially flipped the switch on more than 500 new solar panels during an assembly Wednesday, capping a push that started two years earlier with a classroom research project.
According to Rough Draft Atlanta, Durden and Song researched solar energy’s environmental and financial benefits as fifth graders and then presented their recommendation directly to Mount Vernon School leadership. That proposal set off a chain of further exploration that ultimately led the school to partner with Atlanta-based commercial solar provider Cherry Street Energy to install rooftop panels on its Middle and Upper School buildings.
The panels have actually been humming along since August, well before Wednesday’s ceremonial flip. More than 500 of them now sit atop the campus roofs in Sandy Springs, and together the two systems are projected to produce more than 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, covering over 15% of the facilities’ total energy demand, per the same report. The systems are also expected to help the school avoid 200 metric tons of carbon emissions each year.
The idea didn’t come out of nowhere. Durden first discovered renewable energy technology while driving past a solar farm in south Georgia, and Song recalled asking his parents about solar panels when he was younger and learning they were sustainable, the outlet reported. Those sparks of curiosity eventually became a formal school project built around Mount Vernon’s Impact Summit, a program that has its fifth graders demonstrate critical-thinking, problem-solving and communication skills.
To build their case, the two students didn’t just write a paper. They met with Mount Vernon’s chief financial officer, visited Georgia Power headquarters, and even connected with the CEO of a Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. Courtney Stillwagon, the school’s chief financial and operations officer, said solar energy offers Mount Vernon a meaningful return over time.
Kristy Lundstrom, Mount Vernon’s head of school and CEO, credited the students with pushing the project forward. She said Durden and Song researched and advocated for change, and that their idea became a lasting investment in the school’s future, the outlet reported.
Mount Vernon didn’t have to spend a dime of its own capital to get the panels installed. Cherry Street Energy fully financed the project and will operate and maintain both systems, selling the generated power back to the school at a fixed price. Michael Chanin, founder and CEO of Cherry Street Energy, said the students recognized the potential of the school’s roof and helped Mount Vernon make a lasting power-purchasing decision, per Rough Draft Atlanta.
Andrew Quigley, an account executive with Cherry Street Energy, said the company’s business model lets it serve as an alternative to providers such as Georgia Power, the outlet noted. That no-capital, fixed-rate structure mirrors a broader pattern across metro Atlanta, where Cherry Street has built what it describes as a network of more than 225 solar energy systems serving customers across the Southeast, according to a separate Rough Draft Atlanta report on the company’s planned Spanx headquarters installation.
Mount Vernon joins a growing list of metro Atlanta educational institutions working with Cherry Street Energy, including the Davis Academy, Decatur City Schools, Atlanta International School, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal and Woodward Academy, per Rough Draft Atlanta’s reporting. Each project looks a little different. Friends School of Atlanta, for instance, entered a 20-year energy purchase agreement with Cherry Street Energy that is projected to save the school more than $150,000 and offset over 55 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to a Cherry Street Energy press release.
Woodward Academy went even further, becoming the first K-12 school in the country to provide solar-power shading over its athletic facilities, with a solar portfolio expected to deliver a 25% annual energy offset and avoid more than 790 metric tons of carbon emissions each year, the company said in a separate release. Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church signed its own 20-year agreement with Cherry Street Energy for a system expected to offset 23% of annual energy use and generate more than $300,000 in savings over the life of the deal, according to a PR Newswire release.
The workforce side of these deals is part of Cherry Street’s pitch too. The company has said that for every 1,000 kilowatts of new capacity it creates, it trains 25 new careers in solar power installation, and that at least 250 people have been trained through its Shine On program to date, according to a SaportaReport article. That same report quoted Chanin noting that Southern Company has committed to being 100% carbon-free in its consumption by 2050.
For Song, the project is still about more than the ceremony. He said he wants to know how much the panels will ultimately help communities save energy and reduce fossil-fuel burning, per Rough Draft Atlanta’s reporting. Durden, reflecting on the two-year journey from classroom research to a working rooftop system, advised other students that similar projects may take time and patience and should not be abandoned.
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